How
King James Dictionary [1]
HOW, adv. In what manner. I know not how to answer.
How can a man be born when he is old?
How can these things be? John 3 .
1. To what degree or extent. How long shall we suffer these indignities? How much better is wisdom than gold!
O how love I thy law! How sweet are thy words to my taste. Psalms 119
2. For what reason from what cause.
How now, my love, why is your cheek so pale?
3. By what means. How can this effect by produced? 4. In what state.
How, and with what reproach shall I return!
5. It is used in a sense marking proportion as how much less how much more.
Behold, he putteth no trust in his servants--how much less in them that dwell in houses of clay-- Job 4
By how much they would diminish the present extent of the sea, so much they would impair the fertility and fountains and rivers of the earth.
6. It is much used in exclamation.
How are the mighty fallen! 2 Samuel 1
7. In some popular phrases, how is superfluous or inelegant.
Thick clouds put us in some hope of land knowing how that part of the South Sea was utterly unknown.
Webster's Dictionary [2]
(1): ( adv.) To what degree or extent, number or amount; in what proportion; by what measure or quality.
(2): ( adv.) For what reason; from what cause.
(3): ( adv.) In what manner or way; by what means or process.
(4): ( adv.) At what price; how dear.
(5): ( adv.) By what name, designation, or title.
(6): ( adv.) In what state, condition, or plight.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia [3]
Represents various Hebrew and Greek words, interrogative, interjectional and relative. Its different uses refer to (1) The manner or way , e.g. Genesis 44:34 , "How shall I go up to my father?" ( ēkh ); Matthew 6:28 , "how they grow" ( pō̇s ); 1 Corinthians 15:35 , "How are the dead raised?"; (2) degree , extent , frequently, "how great" ( Daniel 4:3 , māh ; Mark 5:19 , hósos , "how much"); "how many" ( Matthew 27:13 , pósos ); "how much" ( Acts 9:13 , hosos ); "how much more" ( Matthew 7:11 , posos ; 1 Samuel 14:30 , 'aph kı̄ ); "how oft" ( Psalm 78:40 , kammāh ; Matthew 18:21 , posákis ); "how long" ( Job 7:19 , kammāh ; Matthew 17:17 , héōs póte ), etc.; (3) the reason , wherefore, etc. ( Matthew 18:12; Luke 12:49 , tis ); (4) means - by what means? ( John 3:4 , John 3:9 , pō̇s ); (5) cause ( John 12:34; Acts 2:8; Acts 4:21 , pōs ); (6) condition , in what state, etc. ( Luke 23:55 , hōs ; Acts 15:36 , pōs ; Ephesians 6:21 , tis ); "how" is sometimes used to emphasize a statement or exclamation ( 2 Samuel 1:19 , 2 Samuel 1:25 , 2 Samuel 1:27 , "How are the mighty fallen!"); "how" is also used for "that" ( Genesis 30:29 , 'ēth 'ăsher , frequently "how that"; Exodus 9:29 , kı̄ most frequently, in the New Testament, hóti , Matthew 12:5; Matthew 16:12 , Matthew 16:21; Acts 7:25; Romans 7:1 , etc., in the King James Version).
The Revised Version (British and American) has "wherefore" for "how" ( Genesis 38:29 , margin "how"); has "what" ( Judges 13:12; 1 Kings 12:6; Job 13; 1 Corinthians 14:26 ), omits ( 2 Corinthians 13:5 ); has "how that" ( 1 Samuel 2:22 ); "that" ( 1 Chronicles 18:9; Luke 1:58; Galatians 4:13; James 2:22; Revelation 2:2 ); has "that even" for "how that" ( Hebrews 12:17 );" What is this?" for "How is it that?" ( Luke 16:2 ); omits" How is it ?" ( Mark 2:16 , different text); has "Do ye not yet," for "How is it that?" ( Mark 8:21 ); "Have ye not yet" ( Mark 4:40 , different text); "what" for "how much" ( Luke 19:15 , different text); omits "how that" ( Luke 7:22 ); "then how" ( James 2:24 ); has "cannot" for "How can he" ( 1 John 4:20 ); omits "How hast thou" ( Job 26:3 ), "how is" ( Jeremiah 51:41 ); has "how" for "the fashion which" ( Genesis 6:15 ), for "and" ( Exodus 18:1 ), for "what" ( Judges 18:24; 1 Samuel 4:16; 1 Corinthians 7:16 ), for "why" ( Job 19:28; Job 31:1; Jeremiah 2:33; Galatians 2:14 ), for "when" ( Job 37:15 ), for "for" ( Psalm 42:4 ), for "but God" ( Proverbs 21:12 ), for "whereunto" ( Mark 4:30 ); for "by what means" ( Luke 8:36; John 9:21 ), for "how greatly" ( Philippians 1:8 ); "how that" for "because" ( Ezekiel 6:9; 1 Thessalonians 1:5 ), for "and how" ( Acts 20:20 ); "know how to" for "can" ( Matthew 16:3 ); "how" for "by whom" ( Amos 7:2 , Amos 7:5 ).
"How" in compounds gives us Howbeit (how be it). It is the translation of 'ūlām , "but," "truly," "yet" ( Judges 18:29 ); of 'akh , "certainly," "only" ( 1 Samuel 8:9 ); of 'epheṣ , "moreover," etc. ( 2 Samuel 12:14 ); of kēn , "so," "thus" ( 2 Chronicles 32:31 ); of raḳ , "only," "surely" "nevertheless" ( 1 Kings 11:13 ); of allá , "but," etc. ( John 7:27; Acts 7:48; 1 Corinthians 8:7 , etc.); of dé , "but," etc. ( John 6:23 ); of méntoi ( John 7:13 the King James Version); many other instances.
For "howbeit," the Revised Version (British and American) has frequently "but" ( 2 Kings 12:13 , etc.), "and" ( 2 Chronicles 21:20; Mark 5:19 ), "surely" (ERV) ( Job 30:24 ), "now" ( John 11:13 ), "yet" ( 2 Corinthians 11:21 ), "nay, did" ( Hebrews 3:16 ); omits ( Matthew 17:21 , different text); it has "howbeit" for "but" ( 2 Kings 12:3; Luke 19:27; John 5:34 , etc.), for "also" ( Leviticus 23:27 , Leviticus 23:39 ), for "nevertheless" ( Numbers 13:28; 1 Kings 22:43; Mark 14:36; Luke 13:33 the English Revised Version; Luke 18:8; 2 Timothy 2:19 ), for "notwithstanding" ( Joshua 22:19; Luke 10:20 the English Revised Version, "nevertheless" the American Standard Revised Version; Phil ( Luke 4:14 ), for "nay" ( Romans 7:7 ).
Howsoever (in what manner soever, although, however) is the translation of kōl 'ăsher , "all that which," etc. ( Zephaniah 3:7 , "howsoever I punished them," the Revised Version (British and American) "according to all that I have appointed concerning her," margin "howsoever I have punished her"; the English Revised Version omits "have"); of raḳ , "only," "surely," "nevertheless" ( Judges 19:20 ); of yehı̄ - māh , "let be what" ( 2 Samuel 18:22 , 2 Samuel 18:23 , the Revised Version (British and American) "but come what may"); in 2 Samuel 24:3 "how" and "soever" are separated ( kāhēm ), "how many soever they may be," literally, "as they and as they."
